The O-Zone

Finally, they are starting to turn. Another day or two before they reach their peak of color.

Still some green leaves, and the yellow is transitioning between green to yellow, so it isn't the intense light golden yellow right now.

Some trees at the edges have peaked with the brightest yellow, but most of the grove isn't there yet.

It would be neat if the leaves held onto the trees for a while, but once they are at their brightest yellow, winds, even gentle winds, come into play.  And play the leaves do, dancing on the wind, flying and falling.

We aren’t hearing much in the way of bird noises outside, just the occasional hint from our jay friends that “you could put out the feeders anytime you want… hint, hint.”  Broad hints, landing on windowsills and looking in  through the windows, making eye contact.

But, alas, the bears aren’t anywhere near sleepy yet.

Just think, in a month from now it will most likely be snowing.  Not necessarily sticking permanently, but any moisture, especially falling overnight, will be of the white variety.  Once the season changes from summer, it can certainly change in a hurry.

Aspen-watch continues.

More yellow showing today.

Totally clear skies promised for the next several days. It's going to get nippy.

Today we built a wire fence around the Rhododendron by the front door.  That will keep the deer from munching all the leaves that grew back this summer.  And then hopefully next spring we’ll have a bunch of pretty flowers.  Another pre-winter chore is off the list!

We finally had our first killing frost, a low of 26F. That is going to have an impact on the trees. It has definitely had an impact on how many fires we have to build in the stoves.

October 14th, still pretty much green with some yellow leaves appearing on each tree.

Part of the grove is definitely on its way to full yellow.

The weather changed the evening of October 14th, and the trailing edge of the clouds caught the sunset.

Beneath the red clouds, the sky was an electric yellow, and then it winked out, like turning out a switch.

We woke up to clear skies and cold temperatures.  I think we’ve seen the very last of warm days.  Hope the rest of our firewood shows up soon!

Maybe the aspens were waiting for clear blue skies so their leaves could really shine.

It was an apple kind of day, yesterday.

This Crabapple tree is now at the height of its fall color. Soon all these leaves will fall.

All the little apples the tree had dropped on the ground were gone yesterday morning.  Somebody had a feast.  The grass underneath and behind the tree was all matted down from an extensive nap that was had by whoever had eaten all the apples.   Burp, snore!!   It could have been either a bear or a deer; both are equally fond of apples.

We had our own feast, French Apple Tarts.

The original recipe calls for heavy cream to make the custard in which the thinly sliced apples bake.  I played around with that ingredient and substituted my own custard concoction of almond milk, eggs, and Birds’ custard mix, along with some maple syrup.  Dan pronounced my experiment a full success.  Neat!

A deep dish apple pie with a cinnamon/nut struesel topping.

I had enough pie crust to also make a single crust pie, and since I was in an apple mode, I made an apple pie.

I love fall!

Fall moonsets are almost as spectacular as mid-winter moonsets. They are certainly more colorful.

Bright and full, the moon edges closer to the horizon.

As the sun rises, the high ice crystals take on a pink tint, and the sky along with horizon turns a brighter more intense blue, like a tropical ocean. The gold hills are so pretty in contrast.

Almost a month past the Equinox, the difference in available daylight is obvious.

The tall mountain forty miles to the west has a cap of snow lingering from the snowfall last week.  Colder nights means the snow will most likely remain now until next June.

Later in the day, the skys were overcast with some rain showers falling hither and yon. Not on our hither, but others benefited.

I’m sure the ski resort people are delighted to see an early snowfall.

Still mostly green, with colors edging into the grove from the sides. Some of the second story plants are turning color now. The canopy is hanging on.

A hint of the colors yet to come.

Rain the past few days has been a forest fire season ending event.  The woods are nicely wet now.  Hurray.  That is always a nice feeling.

A break in the clouds, and fog lifting from the valley gave a pretty sunset on October 5th.

This was the most sunshine we had all day. An excellent day to stay inside and watch the world go by.

October 6th and 7th were pretty much more of the same, cloudy weather and intermittent rains.  When the clouds lifted, we saw termination dust on the tallest mountain we can see to the west.  It’s only a matter of time before snow visits us.

Fortunately our firewood guy delivered another batch this morning.

Work!  We still have one more row of firewood to fill up the front of the woodshed.  We put all this away this afternoon, filling the back section pretty much as high as I can reach, and making a good start on the second section, with the largest pieces going on the bottom.  Dan says that will be work for him later in the winter.

We picked the apples from the tree next to the aspen grove. One apple remains on the tree, too tall for either one of us to reach without a ladder.

Still green. I think they know they are having their picture taken, and they're hanging on to green-ness with all their might.

Trees next to the garden are turning. Ha! Only a matter of time and they will all get on the band wagon.

We went down the hill today to collect mail, and took a little drive up river to see how the Cottonwood trees are getting along with turning colors.

Starting to turn. This time of year the water is fairly low and smooth as glass unless the wind blows and ruffles the surface.

Some of them are farther along in changing, just like the aspens by our house.

Looking down river. Riffles where the river widens out and becomes shallower.

A very pretty early fall day.

Sunlight falling on some trees by the water makes their colors gleam like a reflection of the sunlight.

Not a very warm day, only 55F for the high temperature.  We used the cookstove this morning, and will need to start a fire in the woodstove in the livingroom this evening once the sun goes down.

Blueberry tarts.

I had some leftover pie crust dough, a few blueberries that didn’t get into pancakes for breakfast yesterday, and some maple syrup.  So I put them all together and added a little cinnamon, and baked some tarts.  It seemed like the only thing I should do with those various components.

We woke up to pretty heavy rain, and then fog rolled up the hills and into the sky. It was a good day to stay inside.

The Aspens are getting paler, day by day.

We went down the hill to fetch the mail, and stopped by the river to see if the Cottonwoods are also turning colors.  They are!  And they are already dropping leaves all over the roadway.

As long as we avoid low temperatures in the 20F range, then the trees along the river will continue turning colors.

A cloudy day today.  A few early morning raindrops fell, but nothing more than a promise of fall rains to come.  We have to run the generator this evening – no solar gain today.

Mountains to the west are hiding behind low, fast moving clouds.

Ripe, tall golden grass covers the hillsides, next to the dark rust brown of St. John’s Wort, an introduced weed that is a great source of natural dyes.

Terry watching me from her perch on Dan's knee, both of them enjoying the sunroom. This is one major difference between the birds and the cat. When we go outside, we are transformed into unknown interlopers, as far as Mishkin is concerned. The birds just wonder what we're up to, but they know who it is.

Further confirms our suspicions that the cat is actually an idiot child.

The hue on the leaves is starting to turn, a pale undertone of yellow is starting to come out. Plants lower in the canopy are showing more and more fall color.

The apple I took a picture of is a dark red spot now, on the right side of the picture above.   Maybe by the weekend it will be ripe enough to pick.

Small Aspens are turning yellow. They are ahead of the larger trees. Even for them, not all the leaves are turning yet.

A tidbit of Aspen lore – they are used to make matchsticks because they have a low flammability factor.

The Crabapple tree next to the sunroom still has lots of fruit on the branches. This was the tree so attractive to black bears last year, but so far this year, no customers. I told Dan that Mishkin had scared off the bear permanently. Ha!

Smaller trees at the ed of the grove are starting to turn yellow.

On the hillsides around here, if you see an Aspen grove, it shows the presence of ground water, not necessarily a spring but definitely a source of moisture.  The larger the grove, the more abundant the water source.

Trees in the heart of the grove, where the ground water lingers longest, maintain their hold on summer green.

An apple continues to ripen, unpicked by a bear, in an old tree by the edge of the aspens.

We have no idea what variety of apple this might be; there are three apples on the tree and if they ripen before a bear gets them, we will see how good they are.  Maybe in muffins, or pancakes….

Rosehips gleam bright crimson, warning of thorns.

Wild Roses are abundant in the aspen grove, in the spring their delicate scent fills in the air.  In the fall they are a brilliant flash of color.  Nobody seems to eat these hips, they make a good herbal tea, when sweetened with plenty of honey, chock full of vitamin C.

This is the heaviest crop of rosehips we've seen since we moved here. Abundant early rains had a definite effect.

We went for a walk today.  The Cottonwood trees are also starting to turn colors, at the very top of the trees.  Soon, in the higher elevations, the Larch will turn gold.  It’s a gorgeous time of year.

Aspens reflect the change of seasons from summer, to fall, to winter, each year in October. I decided to document their graceful transition.

Silvery gray and white bark, leaves still the deep green of late summer, poised and waiting for fall rains.

The understory bushes are starting to turn colors, but the aspens are still waiting.  Not a breath of wind stirs their leaves today, it is all quiet in the grove.  Aspen groves can live for thousands of years, watching the change of the seasons and the activities of their inhabitants with patience and mild interest.

Last night a Great Gray Owl came calling, talking in the grove about the flavors of mice.  Chickadees and Kinglets flit around the leaves high in the canopy.  Snowshoe Hares scamper among the roots.  Deer and bear still forage for ripening fruits and berries clinging to bushes which share the grove with the Aspens.

Across the valley on the hillside, the grass is dry and waiting for winds to scatter their seeds.

A bountiful harvest for Goldfinches awaits their arrival.

Today our project is to replace a window in the basement.  We’ll see if we actually feel like doing that today or tomorrow.  Feeling lazy at the moment, but no guarantees we’d feel less lazy tomorrow, and this afternoon (so far), it isn’t raining.

At least that’s what I thought as I was first waking up this morning. A heavy rainfall too, from the sounds of it.

Then I opened my eyes.

It was raining alright, not water drops though. It was raining plums! Plums and pine needles.

These small plums are about the size of a large marble. No doubt with some food for the tree and copious amounts of water, the size of the fruit would increase. Which would please the bears and deer and packrats who all absolutely adore these fruits.

The tree it over 20 feet tall and we don’t have a ladder tall enough to do anything about the fruit, so must await a helpful strong fall wind to do the harvesting for us.  Then tonight, depending on who gets here first, we will get to listen to the harvest.  The packrats try to hide the plums in the downspout for the rain gutters.  The deer go crunch crunch crunch, and then snort in alarm and stomp their feet and crash off through the aspen grove when the bear arrives, who goes crunch crunch crunch, shuffle, snuffle, before wandering off.  Plumfall does not make for a restful nights’ sleep.

Terry was out for a little playtime on her new favorite spot. She leans over the countertop and talks to the cabinets.

Then, if you say, "Wings!" she does her one and only trick. She does it well.

Mish was up all night, evidently, hoping for another mouse playmate.

In full watch-cat mode, watching leaves falling from the aspen grove, through the window.

All the birds and the cat keep telling us the sky is falling.  They don’t get this whole weather idea.  Too bad, this is still the best time of year.